The present invention relates to a motor vehicle clutch control mechanism in general, and more particularly to a friction clutch hydraulic control mechanism having a slave cylinder disposed concentric to the driveshaft coupling the driven member of the friction clutch to the transmission input.
It is known to operate the throw-out, or clutch release, bearing of a mechanical diaphragm spring and coiled spring clutch by means of a hydraulic slave cylinder bolted to the mounting face of a motor vehicle transmission or gearbox casing. An improvement to clutch hydraulic slave cylinders is disclosed in application Ser. No. 599,249, filed Apr. 11, 1984, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,503,678, issued Mar. 12, 1985 for Improvements to Reservoirs for Liquid Pressure Control Systems and a Method of Filling the Same, assigned to the same assignee as the present application. Such improvement remedies the disadvantages of the prior art, namely the requirement that the slave cylinder housing be bolted to the face of the transmission or gearbox casing such as to prevent rotational and axial motion of the slave cylinder housing relative to the gearbox casing and clutch bell housing, by providing the slave cylinder with an outwardly extending radial member or lug provided with passageways for supplying fluid to the slave cylinder. The outwardly extending radial member or lug which is disposed in a groove or channel formed in the bell housing and clamped between the bell housing and the face of the gearbox casing, thus preventing rotational and axial movement of the slave cylinder.